Japan Official Copper Price Downs to 1M yen/t

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Thursday the firm decreased the official copper ingot price by 40,000 yen to 1 million yen per tonne for domestic shipment in July. The firm has revised the price 6 times within July and the latest price hit the level as cheap as the beginning of this month. The monthly average was settled at 1.0195 million yen.Copper settlement price at London Metal Exchange was US$ 7,975 per tonne on Wednesday, down by US$ 235 or 2.9% from Tuesday. Copper spot price at New York Mercantile Exchange declined by US 18.35 cents or 4.9% to US 357.05 cents per pound on Wednesday from previous day.The selling factors were the slight increase of LME copper inventory, the plunge down of New York stock prices caused by US subprime loan which became uncollectible and the settle of a strike at Canadian copper refinery.In addition telegraphic transfer selling rate sharply rebounded to 120.98 yen per US dollar on Wednesday, the highest level since early May of this year, while which had weakened to 124.95 yen per US dollar on June 22 of this year, the cheapest level since December 2002.